Armors Expanded

[Pakislav 120]

How do you guys feel about expanding on the armors avaible in TFC?

What I have in mind is adding more types of armors, which also expand on the way you progress by upgrading to new types of armor as well as the way that they are crafted.

My suggestion for armor tiers is:

(Optional) Gambeson: Requires wool+string to craft.

Leather: Simple leather armor. Requires leather + string(+gambeson) to craft.

(Optional) Studded Leather: Leather armor with metal rings.

Chainmail: Metal armor made out of metal rings. (Optionally requires leather or gambeson to soak in the blunt trauma)

(Optional) Partial Plate: Chainmail armor with metal plates added for increased protection.

Full Plate: Partial Plate worked with metal sheet. (Optionally requires Chainmail armor to be crafted.)

If armorsmithing was expanded like that, it would reflect more closelly the way that our kind have developed it's means of warfare protection.

This suggestion would require additional metalshmithing items:

Metal Rings:

Take a metal sheet and work it either directly into a number of metal rings, or into a wire that needs to be worked further to obtain metal rings out of it.

The way armor would be crafted:

Studded Leather: Take leather armor and chainmail rings, weld on anvil.

Chainmail: Use plans for armor, work chainmail rings into Chainmail Armor stage 1. (Weld with Gambeson/Leather for Stage 2) Weld with chainmail rings for Chainmail Armor Stage 2(3). Work for Chainmail Armor.

Full Plate: Use plans for armor, work metal sheet into Plate stage 1. (Weld with Chainmail Armor for Stage 2). Weld with metal sheet for stage 2(3). Work for Full Plate.

Shoot down entire idea, change portions of the suggestion or all of it, add/remove some things etc. what ever you guys feel like would fit best in TFC in regard of Armors in general.

[yubyub96 68]

I like the idea of more types of armors, like light, medium and heavy.

But this will need a new block, the working table, to make leather and gambleson stick together and to make gambleson out of wool, something like a sewing table. with an spinning wheel to make string out of wool. would be very interesting.

[renadi 258]

I really like the idea, one reason is it gives sustained requirements for leather which otherwise would likely be piling up.

Plus with the new damage system there's a lot more room for different armours.

That said there my be enough already given the different metals that can all be used.

Although if armour ever gave a speed debuff... then this, this I would be fully behind, giving us a reason to use anything other than "the best" is always nice.

[scioham 14]

I can understand armor giving the player a stamina debuff and maybe a small speed debuff, but the idea that armor is so heavy it significantly hinders a person is very unbelievable to anyone who's worn or seen someone else wear actual armor.

There are many other threads covering new armors but I would like to say I'm completely behind expanding the options for armor, and particularly I would like to see repairable armor like lamellar and mail. Plate armor is nothing to scoff at but protects very little in TFC currently and personally I would like to see plate armor be more difficult to craft and impossible to repair but be more durable and protective. More historically common armors like mentioned here could bridge the gap between the two that plate armor is currently filling in TFC.

[renadi 258]

I've a hard time believing one could move with absolutely no effect on speed in plate armour, although, I understand why for gameplay reasons this has been turned down before.

Still I'd think if the stamina system is flexible enough that might be a better way to do it regardless.

[Zandorum 59]

I got Ninja'd, I was working on how I would write out the same idea. Lol. Good work Pakislav!

[Menoch 335]

Studded leather is leather armor that has metal (rounded or pointed) studs fashioned into it, usually multilayered. Rings fashioned onto leather via straps is ring mail. These usually overlap and are commonly for the chest and ocassionally legs. Good defense against edged/slashing weapons.

Ya know....

One thing i would love to see implemented before expanding on the armor is a reason to actually use the armor. 8). Mobs and the like.

I know they are coming. Cant wait. But since there is already so much metal armor in game, cloth and leather wearables would be AWESOME! Especially if movement is going to be affected by weight carried. Ever tried swimming across a river in chain mail? Me either... Just saying.

Ease of movement and silence while doing so would give a hunter quite the edge... Making leather and cloth more desireable to certain individuals with differing playstyles.

I am all for different types of armor. But textiles and hides need some lovin.

On a side note: full plate armor was evenly distributed over the body giving a knight surprisingly agile movement. Even so much as to be able to get readily into the saddle of their horse. However, in terms of competition, the armor used in jousts was MUCH heavier and more restricting.

For comparison sake, a US Army Troop carries in gear and body armor roughly the equivalent in weight as a knight in full plate (non jousting of course)

[splatman1981 44]

i like the idea that armor needs to be built up from cloth to leather(cloth padding) to ring/chainmail(leather /cloth padding).. etc.

i also like the idea that some armor would protect against blunt, while other piercing. i would totally get an anti skely suit!

[scioham 14]

Renadi, if you have a difficult time believing that plate armor has little to no effect on speed, then simply stuff a bag to 20kg heavy, secure it to your back, and go running. It will slow you down a bit, but if that 20kg were distributed over the whole body as a complete suit of armor, then you'd see it's much more a matter of stamina than strength. There are many people in SCA that wear plate armor that will tell you plate armor is not nearly as encumbering as people think it is by looking at plate armor, and they can run just as fast while wearing plate armor as not. Having TFC apply a significant speed debuff would be hollywood physics and extremely unbelievable to people who know better.

[ECC 508]

a solid 'equipped' debuff system needs to be in place. every tool and armor needs to have a compounding debuff that changes the game ever so slightly. of course NONE of it should be massive, but a mace should swing a fair bit slower then your dagger. running in your birthday suit should be faster then running in something more. of course not some massive debuff where your moving half an inch an hour, but enough that seasoned players will notice it all.

[ruhl4 24]

Oh god... the time needed to smith so many rings... so many...

[Pakislav 120]

The rings might be smithed in a bunk, so a sheet of chainmail might be similar to sheet of metal.

But personally I would prefer if rings were smithed differently, to add to the mechanic. Just don't yet know how, fully.

[dunkleosteus 2,425]

armour has been sugested many times. Leather will be reworked for sure.

[yubyub96 68]

MMM i have a good idea to balance heavy and light helmets, its quite simple, just make the screen like the pumpkin but with the borders of a helmet, that will make you feel like if you were actually wearing a helmet and a very heavy one, for example a frogmouth helmet(i think thats the name) it will only let you see through an small horizontal gap, but will bring you lots and lots of protection.

[dunkleosteus 2,425]

MMM i have a good idea to balance heavy and light helmets, its quite simple, just make the screen like the pumpkin but with the borders of a helmet, that will make you feel like if you were actually wearing a helmet and a very heavy one, for example a frogmouth helmet(i think thats the name) it will only let you see through an small horizontal gap, but will bring you lots and lots of protection.

unfortunately that can be edited with a texture pack, enabling someone to cheat too easily.

[Pakislav 120]

Then just make it optional... in a form of texture pack I guess xd

[Dizzyizzy 7]

I love this idea, I wish it had been given more attention. I know this post is dead but I figured I might be able to breathe some life into it. There's a mod called minefantasy that did a very good job on this subject. I hope the developer have the time to check it out. I think that this idea could give a fresh take on smp.

[fofi9753 25]

I'm all for cloth and leather armours being expanded and stuff, there's a post about cloth making: http://terrafirmacraft.com/f/topic/3787-wool-cloth-products-looms/.

Being a roman history reinactor, me and my colleagues craft our own gear the way the romans used to, and I have made my chainmail shirt and other stuff. Not only is cloth padding cool to add to the game but it is absolutely necessary IRL when it comes to wearing armour (armour digging into your shoulders, etc.). As for the whole movement speed thing, yes, it is quite a bit more tiring to wear armour, and at the end of the day you feel pretty exhausted. In general not wearing armour does make you faster and more agile(for example picking yourself up off the ground can be quite challenging while wearing armour, and running is way more comfortable and easy not using any or wearing lighter leather armour). As for crafting, I testify that crafting chain mail is a loong process (it took me about 3 months, dedicating about 3 hours a day to making links and putting and sealing them together). I think there definitely should be some sort of debuff to wearing heavy amor.